


Rift

by Crazy_Pairing_Person



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, But also, Crack Treated Seriously, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, Guilt, I don't know what happened this was supposed to be time travel about them meeting their past selves, Love Confessions, M/M, Parental Instinct, Post-Canon, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Protectiveness, Scary, Self-Hatred, Spatial Anomaly, Then I had to justify it and I justified it a bit too much I think, There's hella angst and adult fear at the beginning, Time Travel, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26258338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Pairing_Person/pseuds/Crazy_Pairing_Person
Summary: A discovery of a spatial rift brings back so much horrible fear and regret within Linhardt that he thought long-buried.
Relationships: Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring, Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg
Kudos: 17





	Rift

"My name is Annabella von Hresvelg, first in line as the future Emperor of Fodlan and the daughter of Dorothea von Hresvelg and Edelgard von Hresvelg and it is very good to meet your acquaintances!"

Linhardt thinks that three things were beyond cute - incomprehensively, unwaveringly cute.

One is Caspar - and he's proud to note that he's the only one allowed to say it. Except for Josie, whenever she'd hear it and agree wholeheartedly, but that doesn't count for obvious reasons.

Another is cats.

A third is his sweet, sweet little daughter, who everyone says looks like him but with all the energy she holds inside her little body, he sees more of Caspar in.

And now a fourth is added to the list - this obviously-panicking, fearful little girl who looks like she might cry if her new best friend's parents don't like her... If only because of that mangled and frantic and so-obviously-over-rehearsed introductory line.

It's humorous on many levels, not the least of which being that if Linhardt even made the girl think of acting on the thoughts about crying, he's sure that both of her mothers would tear him six ways from Wednesday before even letting him taste death.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Annabella," he says with a sweet smile.

He watches as Josie claps excitedly over her father's obvious acceptance of her friend, gushing that, 'You did so well, Annie, so well! You didn't scream or cry at all!'... He wants to wonder about Annabella's homelife, but he knows both of those girls very well - it's more than likely - nay, a certainty - that her mothers, while overprotective, aren't doing anything so harsh as, say, the former Count Varley.

(Former, and still being tortured to this day, if what Hubert mentioned to him is correct. Not that he holds any sympathy for the man. When he'd heard that Hubert's latest tactic was 'using enough healing to keep him on the edge of life, but not enough to dull any pain', he'd almost offered his own services before remembering, y'know, blood.)

"My husband is looking forward to meeting you too," Linhardt tells Annabella. He feels bad immediately because the girl's face goes pale at the thought of having to do her introduction spiel _again_. "He already knows all about you, though. Josie's been telling us about you ever since you girls met."

That both looks like it helps and doesn't help. "Er... Come on, he had a very special idea for you girls. He's setting up in our backyard."

Annabella at least looks more curious than scared now, and goes willingly when Josie takes her by the hand to lead them all to the backyard.

Now, what Caspar had been planning was apparently camping in the backyard. Linhardt had thought it rather ridiculous for numerous reasons - but then he had realized that if he thought it was ridiculous, Caspar probably loved it, and if Caspar loved it, so would Josie, so he'd relented on the agreement that Caspar would set everything out (no maids or servants in their house, since they had abandoned their noble titles), while Linhardt went to greet the girl when she arrived.

And so he had expected that Caspar would be at least half-finished with setting things up by now.

Not staring blankly, horrified, at a tree, with all the supplies scattered around their yard.

"Caspar, what's wrong?" Linhardt feels the need to ask, placing one hand each on the girls. He knows Caspar. He knows his husband doesn't make such a face for nothing - not for a tree alone, anyway.

"I... I don't think I know how to explain it," Caspar mumbles out, looking utterly haunted by whatever had happened.

Linhardt decides this needs to be fast. "Don't know how to explain it in the way you don't know how to explain Combat Arts, or don't know how to explain it in the way that it fucking scares the shit out of you?" he asks, because if it's the former then there's no need to worry-

"Both."

-And of course there is one.

"Girls, get back inside-" he tries to say, but then-

"Daddy, what's wrong?!" Josie cries out. "You're scaring Annie! She just got here, don't make her want to go home!"

The recognition that this is upsetting their daughter, and their daughter's friend, gets him out of whatever state he's in enough to give an awkward laugh. "Right, sorry! Sorry! It was probably nothing, anyway! Sorry, just... Hey, I'll finish setting up out here, Linny, why don't you-"

"Caspar, I'm not moving one foot until you tell me what on Sothis's green Earth it is you're doing here staring at a tree like it threatened to strike you down with a thousand thunder storms in Hubert von Vestra's voice," he snaps. The worry he hadn't felt in so long - not since the blood-stained days of war and death and blood - is trickling into his body, drip by drip, and he refuses to admit it but he feels his fingers trembling on the girls' shoulders.

Caspar must hear it, because he finally turns to face them properly. "It's... I really, really don't know how to explain it without sounding crazy," he says. "Um... H-hang on..."

He watches with far too much patience for how scared he is as his husband searches the grass. He comes up with a pebble - which he brandishes towards Linhardt and the girls, insisting that they get a good, good look at it.

Then he turns and hurls it at the tree and-

Blink.

It's gone.

And suddenly Linhardt feels Caspar's fear, knows what he means by saying he can't explain it because _what the hell was that_?!

"Daddy," Josie says, petulant, obviously not as upset as Linhardt and Caspar. "You scared us. You just wanted to show us a weird magic trick?"

Linhardt wishes that it were so, but he knows quite well that if that were the case, Caspar's face would have given it away long before he'd even thrown that rock.

"Again," Linhardt says, voice shaking, his grip tightening on the girls to ensure that they don't run away. "M-mark the rock this time though."

"Why-"

"Do it."

And so Caspar does. He finds two fair-sized rocks, and carves a small mark into one with the other before tossing it at the tree again.

Blink.

Linhardt releases the girls with a firmer-than-usual, shakier-than-usual, "Stay," and then he goes and stands next to Caspar. He doesn't know how much closer he can get, after all, to whatever this is that's making things vanish from sight, before he too will vanish.

But he sees no sight of the marked pebble. It's enough of a confirmation.

"Inside, all of you," Linhardt snaps. "I'm contacting Annabella's parents and- and Hubert, Hubert knows how to handle black magic, right?"

Because that's what this has to be. Black magic.

* * *

Hubert is not scared, when he arrives - much sooner than Linhardt thinks he should have, but he's grateful for now instead of creeped-out - but rather, he is visibly confused.

"How did a spatial rift form in such a benign place?"

Linhardt is the only one outside - Caspar is inside, attempting to soothe the girls - so only he can ask, "What's a spacial rift?"

"It's a tear within the universe," Hubert says, far too casually for something like this. "But they usually only form around areas where high densities of dark magic are being used... And even then, rarely."

"Will it hurt them?" Linhardt feels stupid for asking, because it hasn't so far, but he does anyway because it might.

"No," Hubert says. "At most, it will... Displace them, if they get too close."

That's not comforting. "Displace... You mean it'll drop them somewhere else, somewhere else in the universe?"

The universe is big. He wonders if he could even stand to search Caspar for that long. (He would force himself, he knows, but still, it's so big-)

"It might not even drop them within our own universe," Hubert notes. "So I'll be back shortly - I'll need a team to figure out the boundaries of this thing before we can even try to mend it. Be careful that you stay away from it as well as possible until we know all the details." He pauses, then says, "Well, I suppose I should be saying it to the more scarred member of your coupling. And to the little girl who seems adamant in taking after him..."

Right... Those two will most definitely, if not actively want to explore the rift, forget about the general vicinity of where the rift is and stumble into it by accident.

"If one of them..." Or both, he thinks, paling at the thought. "If they fall through... Can they come back?"

"Some rifts are two-way," Hubert confirms. And he wants to be relieved at that, but then Hubert's next comment is, "but even if that is the case with this one..."

He trails off. Linhardt hates himself when he insists, "What?" and hates himself more when his voice shakes.

"Linhardt, I said that it might not drop them within our own universe," Hubert reminds him. "And that is true, but it could also... Drop them back in time."

Back in time.

Back.

Back to the war.

Linhardt is proud that he just sways instead of actively crumpling to the ground in absolute agony at the thought of Caspar just being - being dropped back in the middle of war like that.

And what if that was the case... What if he got dropped into a battlefield... Got hit with a shot and Linhardt wouldn't be there to heal him like always, and goddess Josie, she would be even worse off, and and and-

"Just keep them away from the rift," Hubert says, calm and clear and insistent. "If you sit here panicking instead of warning them about the danger then that _increases_ the danger."

It is not said with annoyance - it is said with purpose. Because he knows that if Linhardt doesn't hear something to get him moving, he simply won't move for the horror that's overtaking his entire being.

Knowing that Hubert knew that, Linhardt gives him a nod of thanks before turning to the house to join Caspar in calming down the kids (and also to make sure that Caspar and Josie never ever decide to step outside of the house ever until Hubert deems it safe to do so, which is weird to think because of who Hubert is as a person but whatever).

* * *

Later on, Edelgard and Dorothea come to personally bring their daughter home, having taken time away from their duties upon hearing of the situation, of how distraught poor Annabella was.

Linhardt is glad that his earlier assumption was right as he watches the girl get princess-carried out by Edelgard and sung to in a soft voice by Dorothea the entire way to their carriage.

Then he turns and sees that Caspar has already walked away. He looks down at Josie, who simply looks back with the look that says, 'I know where he is, you know where he is, I wanna go there too so you'd better take me if you're gonna go there anyway'.

Linhardt lifts her into his arms (she whines, because she's a 'big girl', but Linhardt tells her that even big girls can get carried by their daddies sometimes and she quiets) and then he heads out to the backyard and, sure enough, Caspar is standing in front of the tree - a ten foot distance between them, but still.

"Cas," he says, warningly. "Hubert said-"

"That it could be two-way!" Caspar interrupts. "And that it could lead back to war-times!"

And then Linhardt realizes what Caspar is thinking of. A stray arrow, or a lost enemy soldier, in just the wrong place, stumbling through and...

...So he sits down next to Caspar, holding Josie in his lap. Caspar sits too. Josie is confused, he can tell, she doesn't say anything and joins her daddies in watching the invisible rift.

* * *

Luckily, Hubert is kinder than he usually feels like being today, and he arrives within an hour of Annabella's departure with a large team of - of mages, Linhardt thinks, but he's not sure because they bring back horrible memories and... Ah, right, Edelgard and Hubert were using these guys.

He hates asking for help from them, wants to cry and scream and before he knows it he runs to lock Josie in her room (he feels awful as he does so, it reminds him of when he was a child, when he would upset his parents without knowing what he'd done, and he swears to himself that he'll make it up to her as he clicks the lock into place). He clutches the key in his fist so tightly that it stings his hand, probably draws blood, but he does not think about that he does not he does not he does not, because then he might collapse and the key would be out for those mages and and and-

Hubert catches his eye, and gives a slight smirk. It's more calming than it should be.

Hubert won't let them touch Josie. That's what that smirk means.

But he still holds on to that key.

* * *

The examination is done soon enough. Hubert had insisted that they stay inside for most of it - something about the radiation of the magic.

He wonders about Hubert's safety if he does this often enough, but Hubert shoves him inside before he can ask.

It is a two-way rift. And it does lead back in time.

It leads back, appproximately, twenty years from the present date.

Which means...

"1180," he whispers in unison with Caspar.

The time before war was even a thing that they had partaken in for more than practice battles. While the event of his first kill - so many others' first kills, too - had taken place during that year, it had been so relatively peaceful otherwise. And he'd called it stressful, had, had called it inhumane - those practice battles had probably _saved his fucking life_ -

He feels Caspar grasp his shoulder, and he wonders how ready he looked right then to just leap through that rift and beat his past self _senseless_ for daring to complain about his life at that time.

"Unfortunately, I don't know the exact coordinates of where one could be dropped into," Hubert says, "but... It does seem that it was mostly centered somewhere around the Monastery."

With their fears of a war coming back quelled, Hubert has no reason to be here any longer - nor do the damned mages that Linhardt hates calling mages, hates looking at - and so without much more preamble they leave.

Only when they are far, far in the distance does he finally run to Josie's room and let her out and apologize frantically over and over for locking her up, even though the girl had - much like her other father, whenever Linhardt would fall asleep on him and refuse to move off - simply found ways to entertain herself while she waited.

He gives her a giant portion of dessert that night anyway.

* * *

It's not until the next day that they tell Josie what they can about the rift - what they can that she'll understand, at least.

"So if I go in there I'd get to see you before you were my daddies?" she asks, in a tone that says she doesn't think they were ever _not_ her daddies, so they must be lying.

"Well, yes," Linhardt says, and next to him he feels Caspar's own conflictedness. "But we don't want you going in there without us, okay? And it's still very dangerous, and it might hurt you a little to go through, even if we don't know yet, so it's just really better that you don't go near it until those-" He nearly gags. "Those... People come back and remove it."

"How long will that take?" Josie asks.

Hubert had been clear.

More obviously dangerous rifts existed, which meant that those rifts had to be dealt with first. Rifts that were one-way only. Rifts that led into war-time. Rifts that led somewhere even worse than war-time, if it was possible.

"We don't know," Caspar answers, because Linhardt isn't sure how to phrase it.

Josie huffs and pouts but does not press the issue.

* * *

He'd thought he was getting better at dealing with the war stuff.

He wasn't though - he was just getting really good at running away from that stuff.

Because the more time he spent in this small little house, the more time he spent playing with Josie, the more he allowed himself the indulgences he'd never thought he'd have twenty years ago, let alone fifteen, in Caspar's soft kisses...

The more it felt easier to just pretend the war had been a long, long nightmare. A shared nightmare. With the entire nation.

And then whenever he would round on thoughts like that he'd just find Caspar or Josie and would distract himself until they were gone.

But this damned rift brought all that fear back tenfold and now it had nowhere to go.

* * *

"Think if we go through, you'll feel better?"

Linhardt snaps his head towards Caspar, sees him standing against the wall of the house, eyes alight with concern. He'd been staring at the rift and he hates it. He can't even see the damn thing and yet he's staring at it.

"Why would it?"

"You can tell yourself about all the stuff you regret," is Caspar's easy reply. "Hubert even said we'd create another linetime-"

"Timeline," Linhardt corrects with a smile. "Did you really think that was correct or did you just want me to focus on something else?"

Caspar simply grins and ignores the observation. "Timeline, yeah. You wouldn't be messing up anything we have here, if that's what you're worried about. But you'd be making things better for another you. That's good, right?"

That is good. Very good.

And he can very easily just return back home too after doing it. Because, again. Another timeline. He won't have lost his Caspar, or his Josie, simply by helping out another him.

But.

"I don't feel like any version of myself deserves any help," he whispers.

The smack to his head is expected, if a bit shocking for how quickly his husband gets to him, but he glares at Caspar anyway. "What?"

"Don't say that," Caspar says, as if it's that simple.

"It's true."

Caspar huffs through his nose. "Lin, why?" he asks, low and dangerous - he's gonna get mad if Linhardt doesn't say something more productive, apparently, if he's not already.

"All I did back then was bitch and whine," Linhardt says, shifting sit down on the grass. He picks at a blade. Caspar sits next to him. "I complained about being _bored_. All the time. Unless I was sleeping, of course... Sometimes I look back and think that maybe Sothis herself sent the war as punishment for that - 'Hey, Hevring boy, you not excited enough? Fine, let's have you watch as everyone you care about and love has to fight for their lives. That should be nice and exciting for you!'."

"Lin-"

"Caspar, if you tell me that Edelgard did not start the war to spite me, I'll hit you right now and then throw you through the rift headfirst."

That's a lie, and Caspar knows it is because he laughs. Then he sighs and shakes his head. "Well, if you know that, then why are you-"

"Because I should have appreciated the peaceful times," Linhardt hisses. "Goddess, I didn't know what war was back then! I thought that being sent to 'clean up' after a few bandits was hell?! Do you realize what I'd have given for the soldiers we faced to have been as weak as those fucking bandits?!" He barks out a hollow, shaking laugh that sounds more like a sob. "I wanna go back there, believe me. I wanna hammer it right into my own damn head that shit's gonna get worse, so he'd damn well better take all the chances he's got to- to nap, and he'd better fucking ask you out too because apparently you liked me since we were _twelve_ , so we could have been dating, goddess, Caspar, we could have taken so much more time if we'd gotten together just a little sooner! And- Fuck, goddess, that scar, that scar you have, I could have healed that better if I hadn't been up researching the night before, so-"

"Do all of your regrets involve me?" Caspar asks.

"Most of them, yes!" Linhardt groans. "Oh, there's also Flayn - fuck, we should have seen Tomas sooner, and and Jeralt, fuck we went on that mission when he died and we left because the professor said we could, but we should have stayed, should have helped because something was _off_ about that girl and-"

"Jesus, Lin, breathe..."

He gasps.

Caspar stares at him, shaken. "Didn't realize this stuff still bothered you so much..." he whispered. "Why didn't you ever tell me-"

"How was I supposed to bring it up?" Linhardt snaps half-heartedly. "You don't seem to be half as shaken up as I am - and you fucking discovered this _thing_!" As if to emphasize the 'thing' he meant, he picked up a large stick and hurled it straight into the rift.

Then before he could turn back to the 'loud discussion', the stick came flying back out of the rift, hitting him square in the face.

Silence fell.

Well.

They knew for sure it was a two-way rift, then.

Linhardt moves to stand, saying, "I'm going to bed."

"No."

Linhardt turns towards Caspar, one eyebrow raised. Since when had Caspar denied him rest? Ever? "No?" he repeats.

"No. You, me and Josie are going through this thing," Caspar says, insistent. "You gotta tell yourself all those regrets. That's not healthy, keeping them locked away, and this seems like the best way in the world to get rid of them."

"...Why does Josie have to come?"

"Because she said she wanted to and would be upset if we went without her."

"...True."

* * *

He's not sure what's more aggravating.

The fact that the rift exists in the first place, that it brought to light all the horrible things he tried so hard to not think about...

Or the fact that his past self, upon witnessing their entry into his room out of thin air, simply stares.

Eventually, the past-Linhardt stands. "I don't have any tea," he says. "And I'm too tired to get some. Would you mind terribly if I had a nap before I went to fetch some leaves? And then we can-"

"Shut up."

His voice is low and venomous and he's only ever used it once - Caspar wasn't around to witness that moment, and he's glad (it's a long story) but he is to this one, and Linhardt hates how shocked and worried Caspar looks for him when he catches his eye.

Moreso than Caspar is his past self, though. He's genuinely stunned by the tone. "I, um." He falters, then says, pushing out an air of indifference, "You were the ones who rudely-"

"Caspar. Take Josie to explore the Monastery. She said she wanted to, right?"

"Yeah!" Josie cheers, even though it's a little downplayed because she, too, is worried about what's happening to her daddy. "Let's go, I wanna see all the people you went to school with and I wanna know if you were really ever not my daddies!"

Caspar gives his Linhardt a short nod. "Okay. Take care, Lin." Then, as if as an after-thought, he corrects, "Don't hurt yourself, Lin."

Despite himself, he smiles at the godawful pun as his husband leaves the room with their daughter in his arms.

"He didn't even realize that was a pun, did he?" his past self can't resist commenting.

He responds by slapping the brat.

Past Linhardt stumbles back, stunned. "You of all people should know that only I get to tease Caspar," he says in response to the wide-eyed look. "That means I tease mine, and you tease yours."

The response he receives is a short, jerky nod, and he recognizes what's going on.

He's scaring a child.

That child is himself, but it's still a child.

He sighs deeply, and sits down on the ground. "Sorry," he mumbles. He hears his past self shifting, not knowing how to respond. "I'm... I came back to tell you about some regrets I have. I want-" He pauses. "I need you to fix them. They won't do anything for me, but they'll do wonders for you, trust me."

"What kinds of regrets-"

"Caspar nearly dies a total of four times this year alone due to your incompetence," is a cruel statement to make, but it's one that he's always felt in his heart - four scars on his beloved that would not exist, at least not in so obviously, if not for his own idiocy and refusal to just- just-

And he hears a shift.

He looks up.

His past self is there, ready to listen, pen and paper in hand to take notes if needed.

...Of course.

Of course.

He'd always been weak for Caspar. Everyone else he cared about over time, but Caspar he had known, cared for, loved, from the beginning of their time here.

Of course he didn't have to say anything else as incentive. He would probably (actually had, sort of) walk to the ends of the earth if Caspar asked him to.

So maybe he's not as beyond hope as he'd thought.

"For starters-"

* * *

The first place Josie visited was the 'Black Eagle classroom' which sounded kind of scary, but Daddy was calm about it, so she knew there was nothing to be worried about when he walked through the doors with her.

Apparently, a 'lecture' was going on, and they got glared at - but then everyone kind of looked funny!

"Hey, everyone!" Daddy says. "Uh, my husband's kind of, uh, well, long story, but he'll probably be by in a bit. And this is Josie!"

"Hi!" she says when she hears her name. "Are you my Daddies' friends?!"

"That one is me, actually," Daddy says, pointing one out towards the back, and yeah, he does look a lot like him! He lets her down to walk over to him herself, and she watches as past-Daddy lifts himself to his feet when he sees her approaching...

She stops and frowns. Then she turns and, in a tone that some people said was 'proof he was really Linhardt's daughter', whatever that meant, says, "Daddy, you were really short."

Maybe it's her tone that she doesn't know what it means, or maybe it's the words, but everyone laughs before the person at the front of the room calls a 'recess' which sounds kind of fun, and then a bunch of Daddy's old friends stand up and rush over to her and Daddy.

* * *

Caspar is glad to see that the reaction is positive. Although he does see Edelgard and Hubert in the back, whispering frantically to each other, so he makes a mental note to casually mention that he 100% supported her invasion, as did Linhardt, so please do not kill either of them for being time travelers thank you.

He's not sure how many questions he's been asked and how many have been answered (some twice, maybe, with the way everyone's talking over each other) before Linhardt - his Linhardt - arrives to the scene, being closely tailed by past Linhardt who looks both sickened and determined.

At least he knows his Linhardt did what he came here to do.

Then past Linhardt grabs the past Caspar and kisses him full-on the lips.

Caspar blinks and turns to his husband, who simply groans and says to his past self, "I told you! Use WORDS!"

Past Linhardt pulls away from a very shocked past Caspar, turns petulantly to his future self, and says, "Can't I do that later?"

The glare he gets is a firm 'no', so the two younger versions of the husbands swiftly leave - though one has to be dragged, kind of, since he's still really dazed from that kiss.

A brief silence extends, before past Dorothea finally says, "Well, now we know why Jo here looks so much like dear Lin."

Another round of laughter is heard.

They stay until night falls, until Josie's eyes are drooping, and then they make their way back to the rift - back home - and tuck her into bed.

And when they're in their own bed, Caspar rolls over, looking at his husband carefully. At the way he'd fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow (he hasn't done that in years, he realizes with slight horror), and at the way one of his hands clings to Caspar's shirt if he feels him shift too far away.

He's more at peace now, Caspar thinks. Hopes.

And he also hopes that the peace lasts.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted Annabella to be in the past too, but I couldn't subject someone who's so much like Bernie to that (although really, just imagine her panicking and blurting out that intro line in the past at some point, haha).
> 
> Edit: So I realized that Bernadetta was not Caspar's brother, but cut me some slack because I wrote this on 0 sleep in over 24 hours yesterday, so hush.


End file.
